Finally got around to watching Doctor Strange

[AURaptor 1,114]

Even though I had heard good / great things about it, I was hesitant.  Looked too much like the movie Inception, from the previews, and I was curious as to how ' magic ' , on such a grand scale, would translate into the MCU. Still not fully convinced , but by itself, I enjoyed the movie more than expected. 

Benedict Cumberbatch shined , and his bar was already set pretty high. 

Benedict Wong ( unrelated ) , who played " Wong "  , was a familiar face too, as he's done a great job in the Netflix series - Marco Polo. 

I thought casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was an unnecessary reach. As I understand it, the character is  an older Asian gentleman, and if I were more a fan of the comics, I'd feel a bit gypped .

The humor in it reminded me some what of a Joss Whedon film, but it wasn't . A few times, I was even finishing the lines before they were said on screen. 

I've watched a fair amount of Joss Whedon, I suppose.  

 

 

 

[Mike4AU 1,717]

I watched it last night on my big screen.  I gave it a solid A.  Amazing graphics, very good acting and Cumberbatch may well be the best actor of his generation.  Decent story line.  Fun movie.  Good for younger folks and even granddads, of which I am one.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

2nd childhood?

ditto

[Mike4AU 1,717]

2 hours ago, AUinTLoosa said:

2nd childhood?

ditto

No!  I am still in my first. 

[tiger88 934]

It was good. A bit too much going on visually at times. 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

7 hours ago, tiger88 said:

It was good. A bit too much going on visually at times. 

As I recall, comic books were a bit "busy" as well.

[AURex 1,803]

I read comics as a kid and really liked some of the characters. Back stories were always pretty flimsy, but it was the super-powered battles against evil that captivates kids.

That was fine for killing time as a young teen. And this movie was fine for killing a couple of hours. That said, I will never watch it again, because there's nothing of substance to come back to.

I watched this with wifey a couple of nights ago. She liked it better than I did because ... Cumberbatch. I guess I've just become tired of these superficial superhero movies. Most are true to the comic book genre in that they tell thin little stories in which the good superhero saves the world by fighting the bad superhero. But the reality of these movies is that they (for the most part) provide almost nothing beyond special effects. They are just adrenaline-fueled visual effects vehicles with cardboard cutout characters. Fine for comics. As an adult, I want more.

In this case, lots of nonsense mumbo-jumbo that amounted to "you gotta reach inside yourself and pull out the secret magic stuff," so, ya know, he did, because he read some books about secret magic stuff, and then he grabs a couple of magic toys. That's fine. That's comic book style backstory. Then he goes and bests the evil destroyer of worlds by threatening to irritate him forever. Sigh.

I would have liked it a lot better if there had been even one shred of character chemistry on screen. Rachel McAdams and Cumberbatch had zero chemistry. None! Tilde Swinton had potential for a meaty role that was never really fleshed out. Wong the librarian was the only highlight. At least he had a few humorous lines.

But then, I've never been a huge action-movie fan either. I prefer depth over glitz, or a sense of humor about the entire genre, or some actual complexity of plot/idea. I'll take The Librarian over Dr Strange, Blade Runner over Ghost in the Shell, Ex Machina over Her or Transcendence, 2001 over The Martian, Deadpool and Watchmen over any of the Avengers-related movies.

But of course, in Dr Strange, we have another franchise born with the potential to be the next Iron Man success series. We can expect to see more Dr Strange movies. The Disney conglomerate has definitely found the pot of gold.

 

[AURaptor 1,114]

On 4/9/2017 at 0:30 PM, AURex said:

lots of nonsense mumbo-jumbo that amounted to "you gotta reach inside yourself and pull out the secret magic stuff,"

I find this to be annoying as well. It's also a theme I see in other characters , such as Marvel's Iron Fist, as well as in Harry Potter as well. The basic. " you're super special, even more special than anyone else, and you don't even have to DO anything ! You just be you, and you'll exceed all the masters and experts who have been doing this for far longer than you've even been alive ! " 
 

Blech. What tripe. 

That said, with the trailer for Thor, Ragnarok having just come out, the post credits scene was all the more awesome.